Exeter Hall, London - C H Spurgeon (1855-1856)
The crowds were so great that hundreds could not get into the building on Sundays, so they decided to expand the building, which took a little over three months, opening in May 1855. A year later, the chapel was again not big enough, so they moved Sunday services to the Exeter Hall in the Strand. An hour before the opening of the doors, crowds would line up down the Strand and traffic would have to be diverted. Ninety percent of the congregation was men. The strain of giving out so much took its toll on Spurgeon; he gave everything of himself in his preaching. By the end of 1856 the church had 860 members.
Notable figures came to the church to hear Spurgeon, but he did not care about that. Whenever and wherever he preached, the building could not contain the crowds. They said that there had not been crowds like this since Wesley and Whitfield. In June 1855, he spoke to 10,000 in a field in Hackney, but he could not find his way back out of the crowds, amidst cheers, prayers and shouts. Finally, he found an open carriage that took him away. He stood up, waving his hat, crying, "The blessing of God be with you!" The people waved their hats in the air and cheered and cheered!
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Now the Strand Palace Hotel